A penumbral lunar eclipse occurred at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit on Friday, April 4, 1958, with an umbral magnitude of −0.9421. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when part or all of the Moon's near side passes into the Earth's penumbra. Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. Occurring only about 16.5 hours before perigee (on April 3, 1958, at 20:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
This was the last penumbral lunar eclipse in Lunar Saros 102. In this extremely marginal eclipse, the Moon barely clipped the edge of the Earth's penumbral shadow. This caused a microscopic darkening of just 1% of the Moon's disc for about 31 minutes, which was essentially impossible to see.
Visibility The eclipse was completely visible over North America, South America, most of Africa and western Europe.
Eclipse details Shown below is a table displaying details about this particular lunar eclipse. It describes various parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
+April 4, 1958, Lunar Eclipse Parameters Parameter Value Penumbral Magnitude 0.01359 Umbral Magnitude −0.94211 Gamma −1.53805 Sun Right Ascension 00h51m06.5s Sun Declination +05°28'40.0" Sun Semi-Diameter 15'59.5" Sun Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 08.8" Moon Right Ascension 12h49m12.4s Moon Declination -06°58'45.5" Moon Semi-Diameter 16'43.9" Moon Equatorial Horizontal Parallax 1°01'24.6" ΔT 32.4 s
Eclipse season
This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight. The first and last eclipse in this sequence is separated by one synodic month.
+ Eclipse season of April–May 1958 April 4Ascending node (full moon) April 19Descending node (new moon) May 3Ascending node (full moon) Penumbral lunar eclipseLunar Saros 102 Annular solar eclipseSolar Saros 128 Partial lunar eclipseLunar Saros 140
Related eclipses Eclipses in 1958 A penumbral lunar eclipse on April 4. An annular solar eclipse on April 19. A partial lunar eclipse on May 3. A total solar eclipse on October 12. A penumbral lunar eclipse on October 27.
Tzolkinex Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of February 21, 1951
Lunar Saros 102 Preceded by: Lunar eclipse of March 23, 1940
Lunar eclipses of 1958–1962
Saros 102 This eclipse is a part of Saros series 102, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 84 events. The series started with a penumbral lunar eclipse on October 5, 461 AD. It contains partial eclipses from May 20, 840, through July 13, 930; total eclipses from July 23, 948, through April 20, 1399; and a second set of partial eclipses from May 1, 1417, through July 16, 1543. The series ends at member 84 as a penumbral eclipse on April 4, 1958.
The longest duration of totality was produced by member 36 at 104 minutes, 43 seconds, on October 7, 1074. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s ascending node of orbit.
GreatestFirstThe greatest eclipse of the series occurred on 1074 Oct 07, lasting 104 minutes, 43 seconds.Listing of Eclipses of series 102PenumbralPartialTotalCentral461 Oct 05840 May 20948 Jul 23984 Aug 14LastCentralTotalPartialPenumbral1345 Mar 181399 Apr 201543 Jul 161958 Apr 04
Eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
Series members 76–84 occur between 1801 and 1958: 76 77 781814 Jan 061832 Jan 171850 Jan 28 79 80 811868 Feb 081886 Feb 181904 Mar 02 82 83 841922 Mar 131940 Mar 231958 Apr 04
See also List of lunar eclipses List of 20th-century lunar eclipses
Notes
External links